Thursday, April 02, 2009

Student Loans

Sam is a recent college graduate who is complaining about having to pay back his college loans. Of course, it is his right to complain, but when you read the article you basically find out that Sam went to a private school he couldn't afford, racked up $115,000 in debt and on top of it majored in a subject that was going to be low paying. Ergo, my thoughts are as follows and I quote;

1. Sam is a freaking moron. WHAT THE EF DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN SAM????? No doubt you majored in some worthless freaking subject like sociology or art or some other worthless crap AND RACKED UP $115,000 of OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY SAM to pay for it. Did you bother to do some simple math to figure that you wouldn't be able to pay it back? Or was it not even a consideration because you "wanted" to major in crap and therefore all else didn't matter. Which brings me to point 2;

2. Sam is your typical Gen Y greedy, spoiled bitch. How typical of my generation and the (impossible to imagine, but seemingly true) more spoiled Gen Y. "It doesn't matter what reality is, I WANT to major in bunnies and ice cream and cake. AND I WANT YOU TO PAY FOR IT!" Sam thinks he's entitled to a college experience where he gets to strum is acoustic guitar while getting drunk and majoring in a subject that IS A HOBBY and NOT A CAREER CHOICE THAT WILL HELP HIM PAY BACK WHAT HE OWES!

3. Sam, despite being 23, is still a child. To quote him; "Does that mean that I chose to live a life of struggle, wondering how I am going to pay my rent, afford the basics of living and still stay in my chosen career field…all while putting up with high interest rates and an amount of debt that brings me to tears?" Yes Sam, you snivilling little brat, it does. You see, it's called "reality." When you do something stupid, you get to pay the consequences. Oh, but wait, let me guess, you're going to be like all the other sub prime deatbeats out there and corrupt, parasitic bankers out there and DEMAND I bail your worthless, pathetic ass out.

5. Sam did not study economics; You see Sam, when little cry babies like you take the money people have lent you and NOT PAY IT BACK, then people are going to be less likely to lend money to students as a whole in the future. This decreases the amount of money supplied which increases its cost, the interest rate. Not only that it makes it harder for REAL students who might major in something that WOULD ACTUALLY HELP ADVANCE THE EFFING COUNTRY get financing for their education. Oh, but then again, it isn't about doing what's right, is it Sam? It's all about your galactically incomprehensible level of ignorance and selfishness.

6. Sam is NOT a REAL man. He is an emasculated childish girl. "brings me to tears?" Oh, somebody make it so I can find this putz in a dark alley. The good news is this coward will never, AND I MEAN NEVER find a hot babe to even glance his way. If he thinks it's tough now, boy, wait till unemployment hits 11%. Sam, just do me a favor, try to keep your tears out of my food when you ask "Do you want fries with that?" That is of course you don't go back to live with your mommy and daddy and have mom tuck you in at night and get you your bottle. Whooozeda mommies wittle boy? Whooozedamommieswittleboy? Yes you are! Yes you are! Youz iz mommies' wittle philosophy major. Yessyouz are! Yesyouzare!!!!

Puke.

7. It is the Sams of the world that will bring about the collapse of America and the fact this even gets play and is treated like a real problem by CNfreakingN only shows you how corrupt, ignorant and brainwashed the masses are and why Sam is NOT just one fruit loop out on the east coast. Oh, sure, I know the Captain isn't a nice man. He's a mean man. An insulting man. A man that hurts people's feelings and displays anger and rage. But let me ask you one question;

Who would you rather have leading the country? The likes of the hate-filled Captain or the Pansified Sams of the world?

My niece is graduating HS this year, and her Mom (my sister) is having the discussion about college with her. She wants to go to AZ State (not an Arizona resident) for some reason.

She is well aware of the amount of debt she may end up with, and if I know her, she is not taking up a major that will result in a high paying job. At least her mom is making sure that she is not going into this blind. She has shown her that is she runs up XYZ amount of debt, it is going to cost her this much a month for this many years. Which, I think, is the main reason she has not accepted the offer from Arizona yet.

In saner times, no financial institution would have lent money to Sam if there was doubt he would be able to repay. Unfortunately the government has established student loan programs with guarantees and banks have forgotten lending standards.

Now when Sam defaults, taxpayers will end up paying for his education.

I teach in the physical sciences at a major land-grant U. We just had one of our alums come back for a seminar in his honor. He talked about the job opportunities in industry in our particular major, BS: $100,000/year, Ph.D. $150,000/year average lifetime salaries. Right now about 40% of the new hires are going to foreign-born grads as we can't enough American students to major in this field. Too much calculus, physics, chemistry, stats, DQ etc..., namely it's the work and the lack binge drinking they can do with their friends. About half my freshman advisees complain and drop out, into the fu-fu majors. So I don't have any sympathy for complainers like Sam. High paying jobs are their and were once filled by Americans.

and that is why Simon Cowell is my favorite talent judge! Ha! i heard he is leaving the show as a judge, maybe you could take his place. send in this post as your audition piece, i think they'll love ya!

From the article : "Some might say, “Sam, you shouldn’t have gone to a private school in New York City if you wouldn’t be able to pay it off.” Well, I made a lot of mistakes when signing up for my loans, but I was uneducated on the process and on the repayment and now I’m stuck."

Ok my question: who's the donkey who lent her money without asking himself, how is this dense chicken going to pay back a loan where the interest alone is $600 a month?

She should be whipped and the loan maker should have to pay back the loan if she defaults for being so dumb. Time they both learned.

I worked full time and went to school part time which extended the amount of time it took to earn a four year degree. Frankly, it was the hardest thing I ever did. To speed up the process I took as many CLEO as I could, reading the textbooks for those courses before taking the exams, acing each one and knocking off thirty semester hours in the process. I also took accelerated compressed courses for the last two years to speed up the process also, which pretty much assured a book was permanently attached to my hand at every waking moment for eighteen months straight. Even so, I was still paying off college loans five years after graduating, albeit not at entry-level wages as I had continued to work throughout. So cry me a river, I get satisfaction with the knowledge it's not just hard for me. It's hard all over actually, and no more difficult now for Sam than it was for me then, although I didn't make as poor choices as Sam has.

But I must say, college is a total rip off. I've learned far more out of college than I ever did within it. With technology today, all that teaching can be done much less expensively. It's a racket.

This reminds me of two things my dear old dad, bless 'im, used to say repeatedly. One: "It doesn't matter how much you know, you won't get anywhere without that sheepskin." Apparently he thought diplomas were printed on parchment. My diploma didn't help me at all, my work ethic did. Two: "It's not what you know, it's who you know." Something I always found ironic since that was something to know. I love my dad, but it would have been a lot easier for me had he just paid for it. That, or showed me how to get a few grants.

"Ok my question: who's the donkey who lent her money without asking himself, how is this dense chicken going to pay back a loan where the interest alone is $600 a month?"

Student Loans are subject to Federal garuntees and are not subject to bankruptcy protection. The debt's going to follow her around the rest of her life, and the government garnish her social security if need be(It's happened before). It's a terrible misaollocation of resources, but the College thing often is IMO.

What planet did this chick grow up on? What sane person wilingly takes out a loan being "..uneducated on the process and on the repayment..."

Exactly when did people start thinking that bankers were in the job to be their friends and help out people going to reporter school? Golly gee, you mean Wells Fargo isn't a philanthropic organization? And neither are colleges? Who knew?

Good lord, you mean banks are in this to make money?!?!? You mean they only give us X amount of money if they know they can get XXXXX amount back in a few years??

Well, I am shocked and appalled. Shocked I say. I thought those great big buildings and marble teller stands were paid for by...well, by, by something other than MY money!

This is worse than when you found out all those nice people in vegas with the green visors won't give you your money back even when you explain repeatedly that you were "uneducated on the process" of Craps.

What did her parents do, put earmuffs on her and send her out of the room whenever they started discussing finances? Did they replace Santa Clause with the Christmas Loan Officer?

I actually do hope that her parents are on the hook to help pay the loan she got into. God forbid they sit her down and discuss interest rates, when they could be discussing her prom date.

For gods sake, why, oh why, do parents except that abstinence won't prevent pregnancy, but are pretty sure it will work like a charm for DEBT!

Ug, it was meant to insult the guy as in calling a "man" a girl. You want to be treated equal then start being able to take a little friendly flak now and then. It's called ribbing, men do it all the time in between our daily morning scratching.

My company is still hiring grads. You needs strong quantitative skills, Statistics, some physical science or industrial engineering. 9 out of 10 qualified students we interview are foreign. Sam and her like are idiots.

I went to the local state school, worked, and lived at home. I rode the bus.

My parents paid my tuition (I'm pretty sure my 5 years cost less than a semester of Sam's), I paid for books. I cooked and cleaned and bought groceries to try to help out at home since I was living on my parents' money. And I am grateful they supported me.

I would never *expect* them to, but I'm grateful they did. And I was a little girl (16, to be exact.)

The idiots in my age cohort were taught to study what they enjoy and not to worry about making money. Others know better, one of my calculus teachers from high school liked to point out that calculus was the difference between 70k and circle k.What pisses me off is that I spent 4 miserable years at a military academy studying aeronautical engineering only to not get commissioned due to medical crap and I haven't been able to get a job either. At least I have a pension instead of loans to pay back.